web safe fonts

Web safe ('Web-safe' or websafe) fonts are those likely to be present on a wide range of different computer setups as standard and are used by web content authors to increase the likelihood that content will be displayed in their chosen font.

If a visitor to a website does not have the specified font, their browser will select an alternative - in the case of dingbat typefaces the alternative is unlikely to have similar characters at the same code points.

Here is some examples of the more popular websafe fonts:

Arial
Arial Black
Bookman Old Style
Comic Sans MS
Courier New
Georgia
Helvetica
Impact
Tahoma
Times New Roman
Trebuchet MS
Verdana

You can preview your text using Web Safe Fonts in this handy tool http://www.fonttester.com/web_safe_fonts.html

Updated March 2010